We have made a few minor changes to the Machine Timetable dialog to make it easier to use. In case you had missed it: In Conversion Machine Scheduling you can get to the timetable of any day by clicking the timetable icon next to the date in the headline of that day.

Shortcuts for Opening and Closing Shifts

To open or close an entire shift, just click on the shift letter that precedes the opening and closing times of that shift. Of course, the old links on the top of the dialog are still there, for the same purpose.

More Intuitive Display for Shifts Starting Late or Ending Early

Previously, a shift that ended early looked a little odd: PC-Topp showed e.g. 05:00 - 13:00, and only on second looks would you discover a break from 11:00 - 13:00 and understand that the shift really ended at 11 a.m. on that day.

Now, the same situation is simply shown as 05:00 - 11:00, as one would expect.

Production Targets are calculated as a snapshot of the current schedule situation at the exact (theoretical) moment of the shift change, they reflect what Planning had committed to deliver during the following shift.

The Production Targets page shows these targets along with the current production, showing at any time whether actual production is on target (100%), or above or below. The crews at the machines can use that indicator to see how they are doing, and starting out at 100% it should motivate them to stay at or above 100% even if the schedule changes during the shift. That way, the production totals at the end of the shift will more likely match the objectives.

As a new feature, the corrugator's production targets can be added to that page (which until now only showed the conversion machines' targets).

There is a new red alert box in the My PC-Topp section of the main menu page. It warns you if there is something badly wrong with the system itself, or certain planning situations have occurred that require your attention.

Of course, that notification is only visible on the PC-Topp start page, and so you don't miss an alert while working on a different page, we have added a Red Alert icon on all other pages (top right, near the Print Preview icon). It flashes for 15 seconds after a problem was first found, and then remains on screen, but less prominently, until the problem condition is resolved. A click on the icon takes you to the home page where the problem can be seen in detail.

The system alerts you to difficulties of the following kind:

• An order has arrived in the order data transfer that can't be produced in time.
• The production statistics need to be archived because they contain records that are older than 6 months (6 months are the default setting and can be changed to a different value.)
• Some station is blocking backup.
• The Program Memory has to be cleared up because someone forgot to delete the produced programs promptly.
• A problem occurred during the transfer of Paper Stock data:
  • The host system has sent a paper code that is unknown to PC-Topp.
  • The stock for a particular paper and roll size appears more than once in the file.
  • The stock date is either incorrect, in the future, or too far in the past.
  • Incorrect numeric values appeared for roll size or stock.

(The number of problems reported like this will grow in the future.)

The Corrugator Monitor has been improved again to offer additional information for the user.

Next to the Day Info, the user can look up the next programs following the current run, to stay informed about the schedule sequence as well as upcoming paper size or flute type changes.

The new information box appears on the right hand side of the Entire Day box, and users can hide it to view the Current Program Details box again by clicking on the link in its head section.